The Fourth Man

The Third Man

The Third Man

Silently Graham signalled to proceed into the entrance hall of the Temple. It was a large and cavernous space, with parts of stone worn or knocked away.

"There's no-one anywhere," whispered Thomas

"Well Jellah will have chased him," said Daisy matter-of-factly "And if he was running away, there's only the staircase he could have gone up."

She pointed to re curving staircase which led away from the hall and up out of view. It was also worn and made of stone, and it looked very unstable.

"I agree," said Graham "Half of us will go, and the rest should stay and see if anyone comes out down here."

"Fine," said Exo "We can stay down here," he indicated to the other four boys.

"Good idea," acknowledged Graham, "Krill, you and Daisy up the stairs first, just two at a time, we don't want it to break."

They made their way up the staircase, up and onto the next floor, leaving Exo, Siggy, Thomas, Jonathan, and Nerpato.

"Still can't bloody believe that," said Jonathan "Quaker getting killed, so much for being safe I'm large numbers."

"I know," Nerpato agreed "But we would have nothing if whatever it was had attacked when we were alone," he indicated to the sharp wood stick he was wielding.

"So what are our plans?" asked Exo "Half of us wanted to escape and the others wanted to find the Fourth Man."

"We should stick with all these nevertheless," said Thomas "There's loads of things they haven't told us, things that could be essential to escape the island."

"Yeah, I agree with Thomas," said Jonathan "They know things that we should get out of them, Krill said the island had mysteries, loads of them."

"So we stay," concluded Siggy "That sounds ok, as long as we don't get picked off one-by-one, by this unknown killer."

"Yeah," Nerpato laughed "that."

"Hey," exclaimed Exo "Look at that!" He pointed to the back of the hall.

"What's that?" asked Siggy "The attacker, Jellah?"

"No, it looks like a trapdoor."

"A trapdoor?"

"Yeah, built into the floor over there."

They moved over to the back of the hall where the trapdoor was. Nerpato heaved the door open, and a cloud of dust spewed up.

"What's down there?" Thomas coughed

"Can't really see," Nerpato replied with his hand over his nose and mouth "But there's a small set of stepladders."

They dropped down one-by-one until they stood side-by-side in the dark and damp room they found themselves in.

"Well I can't see anything," sighed Siggy "which is no good."

"Just a second," Nerpato sprang out of the room and raced off. Soon he came back and dropped down the trapdoor.

"Got a burning log from the fire," he waved it aloft "So we can see."

Nerpato moved forward and shone the light onto what looked like a small and empty space, until it moved over something at the back, next to the wall.

"What's that?" he called out

"Don't know," replied Siggy "But let's have a look."

They advanced forward and swept the light over what looked like a gravestone.

"Someone must be buried here," Said Nerpato, examining the the stone.

"What does it say?" asked Exo

"I'm not sure, looks like a year; 19 something something, and then a name."

"A name? What name?"

"Well not even a name."

"What do you mean?"

"It says, my god, it says 'the third man!'"

"The Third Man? Do you think this is where he's buried?"

"Must be, that means the Fourth Man was once on this island, only he would have known about his father."

"Yeah-"

Siggy was cut off by a deafening scream "Help!" it bounded around the cavernous room.

"Quick!" Shouted Thomas "Let's go!"